00:00This is Stefan Bondi reporting from Oklahoma City, where last night the Knicks fell to the defending champs.
00:05It was a fairly close game throughout, but then Oklahoma City does what it does,
00:10as the defending champs kind of flexed their superiority and took over down the stretch,
00:14especially SGA, the reigning MVP.
00:17You know, he was dueling with Jalen Brunson, and he got the better of that in the closing minutes.
00:22But, you know, it was a second straight loss for the Knicks,
00:26and, you know, they're now two and a half games behind Boston.
00:30Fourth, second in the East.
00:31That's becoming more difficult to catch them.
00:33They do have the tiebreaker in that matchup, but now Cleveland is inching up,
00:38and the Knicks can finish anywhere between second and fourth.
00:41That's kind of what they're looking at down the stretch here,
00:43with only two weeks remaining in the schedule.
00:46There were some interesting developments from the game.
00:48Let's start with Deuce McBride.
00:49He returned from a 28-game absence after having sports hernia surgery, and it didn't last long.
00:55In the third quarter, he was chasing after a loose ball,
00:58fell on top of Lou Dort, and came up limping, holding his groin area.
01:03I assume he's going to get an MRI today to see if he re-aggravated that sports hernia surgery area,
01:11and that would obviously be a tough blow for the Knicks,
01:15and especially Deuce McBride.
01:16You feel for him, he really wanted to get back.
01:18He came back, I think, sooner than a lot of people projected,
01:21and now you have to question whether he came back too soon.
01:25You know, on top of that, a big storyline coming out of that was the foul baiting.
01:30The Oklahoma City Thunder more than doubled up the Knicks in free throw attempts.
01:35SGA had 16 by himself.
01:37They obviously come in with the reputation of being foul baiters,
01:41and the Knicks didn't say that explicitly,
01:43but, you know, there were some references to how the OKC Thunders are masters
01:50at being able to draw fouls with their movements,
01:54and especially Shea Gilgis-Alexander.
01:59Mike Brown got a tech in the game,
02:01but he was very adamant afterwards that he didn't want his players complaining to the officials.
02:06He felt like that detracted them from their mission of trying to win that game,
02:10and, you know, that was a big talking point for the coach.
02:13So, you know, it's been throughout the season for him.
02:17He doesn't want his players complaining to the officials,
02:19but there was frustration with the number of foul shots
02:22that the Oklahoma City Thunder were able to generate.
02:25Next up for the Knicks is at Houston against Kevin Durant,
02:30and then it's a back-to-back the following day in Memphis against John Morant.
02:36They wrap up their road trip there in Memphis,
02:40and we'll see where they are coming down the homestretch now.
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